Attendees at the 2003 Investment Development Conference of the U.S. Department of Interior were told here today that telecommunications must be at the top of the list when selecting the location of a business.

Samuel Ebbesen, senior vice president and a member of the board of directors of Innovative Communication Corp. said that state-of-the-art telecommunications with broadband and high-speed data communications services
are critical for businesses to connect and access today`s global economy.

“With our company`s resources, the U.S. Virgin Islands should be at the
top of the list for any business looking to expand or relocate,” said Ebbesen.
In April 2001, Innovative, which is headquartered in St. Croix, became the first and still is the only telecom in the U.S. to fully integrate and bundle its local, long distance and cellular telephone services, cable television and high-speed Internet access, including DSL.

“We can provide large and small businesses with the full range of fiber telecommunications services for real-time processing of voice and data from phone and access line, PABX, wireless and cable for real-time processing of data,” he said. “For any business, connectivity in the U.S. Virgin Islands is no different than being in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami or any other major metropolitan center. It may even be superior.”

Innovative has spent more than $130 million on its infrastructure and buried more than 130 miles of cable to protect against hurricanes and the
ravages of Mother Nature. “You need to have a system you can depend on in the worst of weather conditions, brownouts and blackouts,” Ebbesen added.
Innovative was the first telecom in the Caribbean to have an all-fiber network
and to become 100 percent digital.

Innovative Communication is a privately held, diversified, trend-setting
telecommunications and media company with major interests in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Saint Maarten, Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique and
France.

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